Learning to program

Maybe it's not what you've been trying to learn, but how you're going about doing so...
if you really want to learn how to program, i assume that you are very interested, it might be worth the money to take a class. to me- having someone explain the basics, makes all the difference in the world. and if you don't want to shell out any cache- GOTO your local community college and sit in a few of the classes (i do this all the time, it's free education- you can even get away with this at a nice university, if the classes are large enough)- but, before i start to ramble on: taking a class might be the way to do it? or even find a friend who wants to learn the same stuff, and study together...

i hope this helps :-)

btw- i love to program, and wouldn't mind answering a few questions...

Personally i'd recommend perl for beginners. It uses c syntax, and allows the use of objects, and is VERY good at manipulating text. Along with TK, perl can create windows applications pretty easily. And once, you've gotten a good handle on perl you can switch to c and c++ quite easily. Add all this to the fact that perl is completely free, and the perl community is extremely helpful and knowledgeable it all makes perl very easy and powerful.

but that's just my opinion.

Start with Qbasic. That was my first language=0)

1 If Fallen_Hobbit = Dork
5 Goto 20
10 Else Goto 25
15 Kill Fallen_Hobbit
20 End

eww, yuck spaghetti code- blah! (j/k it's a joke)
it's not 1984, get out of your cave ;-)

Basic is great (in fact i started with it too) but it does make it a bit harder to move on to more complicated/powerful languages... If all else fails, learn visual basic- rapid application development (really quick) although it can be a resource hog and relatively simple programs require large bulky DLL's

in my opinion the easiest programming language to learn...
c'mon, think about the name BASIC...
[B(eginner's) A(ll-purpose) S(ymbolic) I(nstruction) C(ode).]

First, I have to say that I admire your tenacity! Everyone has a different learning style and you should take that into account when you are learning to program.

If you don't do well with tutorials, then go take a class and learn some of the basics. When I first started out, I purchased a book "Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming" by Greg Perry.

It as a basic intro into the world of programming that touches on a variety of Programming Languages; i.e. FORTRAN, C, C++ Visual Basic, QBASIC, etc. I would suggest that you read this book first. From there, you should have an idea as to what language is being presented
and what you think you understand. Otherwise, you could be like the dog chasing his/her tail. Going around in circles and getting nowhere fast.

Hope this helps!!!


Some people are wise and some are otherwise!

SpIdErMaN1954

Learning VB 6 first gave me a good base to start learning C and C++. Once you understand the logic, mostly the syntax just changes an maybe there are a couple added features. Well definately theres added features but VB is a good start

as you've already discovered, learning to program is NOT an easy thing to do. it's important to realize very early that no one in the world can learn everything there is to know about any one language. there is no one good language to start with and no one language that fits every job. what you have to do is decide what it is you want to accomplish and then find the best tool for the job. it takes years to be an effective programmer.

i always highly recommend c++ b/c many language borrow from its syntax, and as you prbly know by now its very portable. but i won't lie and say its an easy thing to learn. you're really going to have to spend time reading and programming. stick with it, nothing feels better then writing an elegent algorithm.

good luck!

If you want to lear to program perl is a good start. You can find a lot of books about perl programing on the internet. I mean free books. A place to get your books for perl is freebooks.by.ru .You will find there other programing books if you decide to learn something else.
Hope that helps!

kinda cool for me cause im taking a programming course in school [c++] so i kinda have to learn it or i fail